This Boston Red Sox scorecard is from the day Fenway Park was formally dedicated on May 17, 1912. While the park had been in use since the start of the season, the formal dedication was set for May 16, 1912 with engraved invitations to sent to dignitaries, a rainout pushed the ceremony until the next day May 17, 1912. The Boston Globe extensively covered the entire event and even included a play by play recount of the entire game that day. This recap is the key to interpreting and definitely identifying our program as being from that game.

Here are the scorecards for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox contained within the program.

The key to interpreting the scoring is learning the eccentricities of the scorer. The scorer seems to mainly note only the outs that were recorded. For instance, in the Chicago first inning the first three batters went out in order as shown by “1o” for one out “2o” for two out and “3o” for the third out of an inning. He seems loathe the log a batter as having reached safely, occasionally noting “BH” for base hit, but typically just leaving the box empty when a runner reached. Boston’s bottom half of the first is illustrative. Hooper and Engle both doubled and scored before the next three batters starting with Speaker were retired at the plate or on the bases as noted in the Boston Globe play by play. Note while Hooper and Engle’s spots are left blank on the scorecard in the 1st inning, their runs, Boston’s only runs of the game are duly noted in the run column at the right of the scorecard. Following this eccentric formula, the scorer dutifully fills out the rest of the scorecard faithfully to the on field happening until two were out in Chicago’s top of the ninth inning. That is when things fall apart, both for the Red Sox and our scorer.

As the Boston Globe notes, there was an exodus of the fans when the first two Chicago batters were retired in the ninth. But inexplicitly, the White Sox rallied for four runs in the ninth to defeat the Red Sox 5-2. The scorer must have been part of the exodus, as he did not record the rest of the game in his scorecard. He missed Chicago’s rally, Boston’s failed ninth rally and Weaver’s leaving of the game in the ninth.

All in all, this is a terrific artifact from the formal dedication of Fenway Park and one of the most important scorecards from the inaugural season!